Early in my marriage, I was at my in-laws’ house, rifling through the fridge in search of butter.
“It’s in the cabinet,” my mother-in-law said. As in: the non-refrigerated, just regular old room-temperature kitchen cabinet.
Whaaaat?
This was my introduction to the various different views on how to store butter. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that butter doesn’t have to be kept in the fridge. And when I finally found it in the cabinet, it was already at the perfect temperature to join the rest of my cupcake batter. What a cool discovery!
I suppose I always put butter in the fridge because I consider it a dairy product. And if you leave milk or cheese on the counter for over four hours, it can grow bacteria.
But butter is different.
“The pasteurization process butter goes through reduces any pathogens initially found in the cream, and the churning process immediately afterward changes butter into a solid state, Janilyn Hutchings, a food scientist at StateFoodSafety and certified professional of food safety, told Insider. “Along the way, the water molecules in butter become separated by fat, which is almost impenetrable to bacteria. This protects butter from microbial growth.”
Plus, butter is about 80% fat, and fats themselves have a relatively long shelf life. After all, we store our shortenings and oils in room-temperature cabinets for months.
But the rules of butter storage are a little more complicated than that.
Butter’s Shelf Life Depends on How You’re Storing It
First of all, while fats are relatively long-lasting, they do have an expiration date. Depending on which fats you’re talking about, they can last up to one to two years in a kitchen cabinet.
Butter has a shorter shelf life than fats like shortening and vegetable oil because it “has a lot of milk solids that make it go rancid, or spoil, faster,” Matt Regusci, a food safety expert with ASI Food, told Reader’s Digest.
How quickly that happens depends on a few factors, but mostly it’s about how it’s stored.
When butter is exposed to elements like heat, light and oxygen, its fat begins to break down. This leads to spoilage. But storing it in a cold fridge or icy freezer will put that spoilage off.
In the freezer, well-wrapped butter can last up to a year, after which its flavor and quality will be compromised. It may also develop freezer burn.
In the refrigerator, well-wrapped salted butter can last up to five months without spoiling. Salt is a preservative that prevents microbial growth and extends shelf life. Unsalted butter can last up to three months in the fridge. (If the butter is unwrapped, shorten those projections to about two months in the fridge.)
And in a cabinet or on the counter, you can leave butter out for a few days to a week without it spoiling.
No matter where you store it, use a covered butter dish or wrap the butter tightly in foil or wax paper. This will keep it from picking up errant smells around it.
How do you know when butter has gone bad? There are two ways to test it, according to Venae Watts, a butter maker at Minerva Dairy.
“Looking at the butter, do you see any spots that look like mold or something that does not look like it belongs?” she told Reader’s Digest. “After passing the look [test], try a little bit for the taste test. If it is bad, you will know.”
If you’d rather not taste it, try giving it a whiff. A sour smell can also tip you off that it’s time to buy some new butter!
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Check for changes in the butter's look, feel, smell, and taste. Any visible discoloration, change in texture, bad smell, or bitter or sour taste indicates bad butter. Can you freeze butter? Yes, you can freeze butter to keep it fresh for longer.
Spoiled butter will have a sour, bitter taste, and may also change in color and give off a subtle, unpleasant odor. It may also taste like the other foods in your refrigerator, as it quickly absorbs the flavors of any strong-smelling ingredients in its vicinity.
If you've gone to use butter and found it to be past its expiration date, don't fret. Odds are, this butter is probably safe to consume, provided you keep an eye out for signs of spoilage. While many dairy products have a short shelf life, butter is an exception to this rule. This is because of its composition.
In the refrigerator, well-wrapped salted butter can last up to five months without spoiling. Salt is a preservative that prevents microbial growth and extends shelf life. Unsalted butter can last up to three months in the fridge. (If the butter is unwrapped, shorten those projections to about two months in the fridge.)
Frozen butter lasts six to 12 months when properly stored in the freezer in an airtight container. Salted butter may last longer than unsalted butter since salt helps with preservation. After the one-year mark, the butter's quality and flavor begin to deteriorate.
It should be pointed out that rancid butter can't make you sick, but it won't taste or smell very good. Rancidity is caused by exposure to oxygen, light and heat. So, to prevent rancidity, keep your butter in an opaque butter dish with a lid.
The first thing to do is, not panic as old butter cannot kill you or give you food poisoning. The worst that can happen is a stomach ache. Also, rancid butter can lower your vitamin E and vitamin B stores.
The butter you used may have been rancid, which would cause a change in the color of the butter and an unpleasant flavor. Since your cookies will be baked, I would consider this a very low food safety risk. But it will affect the quality and flavor of your cookies.
Ultimately, butter can still be eaten and used in recipes despite what the expiration or sell-by dates say. Venae Watts, a fifth-generation butter maker and co-owner of Ohio's Minerva Dairy, advises, "You can absolutely eat butter past the sell-by or expiration dates.
When left on the counter, raw butter will become more rich, bold, and flavorful. It will also develop a slight smell of parmigiano reggiano cheese. That is what you WANT raw butter to be like! This exquisite flavor and richness is not experienced with pasteurized butter because the bacteria are dead.
Discolored or moldy butter is a clear indication that it's time to throw it away. The color of spoiled butter can differ based on how rancid it is, but any change from its natural cream-yellow hue might point to spoilage.
Because butter has a high fat content and relatively low water content, it is less likely to support bacterial growth than other types of dairy products. This is especially true if the butter is salted, which lowers the water content further and makes the environment inhospitable to bacteria.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends leaving butter at room temperature no more than two days. After that period of time, the butter can turn rancid. This will cause off flavors and unpleasant texture. However, if you follow the butter storage tips above, butter can stay fresh up to two weeks on the counter.
The result is that butter can often remain edible past its printed expiration date provided you have checked it for any obvious evidence to the contrary. When using expired butter, first examine it for changes in color or texture, any funky or sour smells, or visible evidence of mold growth.
Butter can stay safe for consumption inside the freezer for up to 6 to 12 months. The product must be properly sealed in an airtight container to exclude external factors. While butter's shelf-life can be extended by freezing, its quality may degrade the longer it stays in the freezer.
Many of the oxidation pathways are not entirely understood. Salted butter was developed to prevent spoilage, and to mask the taste of rancid butter. A sour-bitter taste is identifiable with rancidity (i.e. soapy, baby-vomit, blue cheese). Rancid butter becomes yellow to brown and the flavor becomes harsh.
How Long Can You Leave Butter on the Counter? The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends leaving butter at room temperature no more than two days. After that period of time, the butter can turn rancid. This will cause off flavors and unpleasant texture.
Why care about when to stop churning? If churning ceases too soon, much fat is lost to the buttermilk. If over-churned, the butter will contain too much buttermilk and be very difficult to wash clean.
When left on the counter, raw butter will become more rich, bold, and flavorful. It will also develop a slight smell of parmigiano reggiano cheese. That is what you WANT raw butter to be like! This exquisite flavor and richness is not experienced with pasteurized butter because the bacteria are dead.
Can you put softened butter back in the fridge? You sure can! But as with any dairy product, there are always precautions to take. The USDA recommends keeping butter at room temperature for no more than two days to prevent spoilage.
Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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